1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communication systems, communication apparatuses, setting information providing methods, setting information obtaining methods, and computer programs. More specifically, the present invention relates to a wireless communication system for performing wireless communication through an access point, in which communication apparatuses can easily obtain setting information necessary for accessing the access point and can readily start wireless communication, a communication apparatus used in the wireless communication system, a setting information providing method, a setting information obtaining method, and a computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a wireless communication system in which a plurality of communication apparatuses perform wireless communication through access points, the individual communication apparatuses have setting information necessary for accessing the access points. The setting information includes, for example, IDs of the access points and key information. In general, users manually input such setting information when setting information is newly registered in the communication apparatuses or when existing setting information is updated in accordance with changes of the access points.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-32261 discloses a method for easily performing the setting of a communication apparatus using a contactless interface. In the method disclosed in this publication, a mobile phone is equipped with a contactless IC card. The mobile phone performs near field communication using the contactless IC card to transmit the card ID of the contactless IC card of the mobile phone and the Bluetooth device name of a communication partner with which the mobile phone is to communicate to a personal computer serving as a master control apparatus of Bluetooth communication so that the personal computer can specify the communication party. This method allows a user to easily perform wireless communication using the mobile phone without manually inputting the device name, etc.